The Zero to Landfill project is intended to cut the 200,000 tonnes of matrix and production waste that is sent to landfill every year by UK label converters.

This is expected to help save costs while boosting the environmental credentials of the industry as a whole - something that is increasingly on the agenda for suppliers to brand owners and major supermarkets.

It launched in April as a regional pilot in South Yorkshire and since then the 10 companies involved so far have already diverted 6,500 tonnes of waste from landfill to a waste converter who can convert the labels waste into bio-mass fuels.

The project is now being rolled out nationally; however, at present it is only viable for medium to large converters, as the limited number of converters that are able to handle labels waste and the cost of transport means that the original intention to offer a "milk round" collection for smaller label converters would end up costing more than the landfill cost.

As such, the project is being aimed at companies that can fill waste cages and store these enabling a 15 tonne collection to be made.

Prismm Environmental sales director Jon Hutton told PrintWeek that it could prove economically-viable for two converters that were local to one another could combine their waste to make one 15 tonne collection, although he added that this had not happened to date.

J&G Environmental is providing the transport infrastructure for the project.